Terrie Hall asked:


EDEN PRAIRIE, MN – (November 4, 2008) With inflation rising and consumer spending continuing to drop, can it really be a good time to buy a franchise?

“Yes,” said FranChoice President Lori Kiser-Block. “While the headlines concentrate on what isn’t working in our economy, there are still plenty of businesses that are thriving. If you know what to look for in a franchise business, you can actually take advantage of some aspects of the current economic environment to lower your start-up costs.

“For example,” said Kiser-Block, “current low interest rates can mean that borrowing money for your purchase will cost you less. A higher unemployment rate means you will have more good employees to choose from to help you run your business. You may also find that you can now buy or rent business property at a better price than you could have in the past.”

The key to finding a viable business in this economy, suggests Kiser-Block, is to choose a business that fulfills a need for consumers that cannot be put off until better times.

“Think about what you can and cannot live without,” said Kiser-Block, “and you’ll have an idea of business that can do well even in a slow economy.”

One example of a franchise business that has continued to prosper includes disaster restoration companies that help a homeowner after a fire, flood, or even a hurricane. When your home is filled with water, you need to take care of it immediately.

“Service businesses tend to be more recession-resistant,” says Kiser-Block, “as they provide something you either can’t or don’t want to do for yourself. Whether it is tax preparation, senior care, child care, or home maintenance, these are services people need.”

Kiser-Block offers these suggestions for starting a business in a shaky economic environment:

·          Pick a recession resistant business, such as one providing a needed service to the community.

·          Look for businesses with low start-up costs. The less you pay to begin the greater your chances of reaching profitability.

·          Don’t discount service businesses because they aren’t “sexy.” They are among the best values among franchises because of their lower entry cost, high demand and good margins.

·          Look for a franchisor that has a very strong executive management team with experience, wisdom and strategic vision in their specific industry.

·          Search for an established franchise with a number of happy franchisees. The more you can learn about the business from those working in it, the better decision you will make. Choosing an established franchise may also lower the risk of your investment.

·          Current franchisees will be your most accurate source of information about a franchise opportunity. Ask how they are doing in the current economy.

·          Financing a new business can be more difficult during a recession. Use the resources available from a business funding specialist (Guidant and FranFund are two examples) if needed, that can help you find the best method of borrowing money for your circumstances.

“If business ownership is something you’ve dreamed about,” said Kiser-Block, “you don’t need to wait for the economy to turn around. Definitely pay attention to trends in business (such as senior care and business that help the environment) but steer clear of franchise fads. If you choose carefully and wisely, your new business could bring you success even in this economic climate.”

About FranChoice

FranChoice is a national network of consultants dedicated to helping consumers find their ideal match in a franchise business. Since 2000, FranChoice consultants have helped over 40,000 people identify and investigate the perfect franchise for them through their free service. For more information, go to www.franchoice.com.



Brian

K. Hanks asked:


Many marketing managers have found the first half of 2008 has been nerve wrenching. Turn on the television, radio or open a newspaper and you’ll see that consumer confidence is down, inflation is creeping in and overall confidence in the economy is reaching historical lows.

It is not your fault the market is in its current condition. How could you have forecasted these figures when you submitted your budget last year? Reaching sales goals that were established in an optimistic economy is probably more obtainable than in a downward economy.

You can not control the macro factors of the economy, but as a professional it’s your job to find ways obtain your committed numbers. Before you start waving the white flag, consider these handy search engine marketing steps you can implement.

Determine Seasonality:

Each company tends to have a unique season. For retail, its Q4 where consumer accounting services is Q1. Tourism peaks in the summer months of Q3. Consider your industry, your company and the brand(s) you are responsible for. What is your busy season? How do you define your busy season? Do you define it by an increase in revenue, an increase in transactions or both?

Many managers are finding awkward meetings with senior management based around decreased financial performance. How can you quantitatively explain a decrease in financial performance year over year, or against your sales plan.

If you can’t justify performance, outside of kindly asking senior management to turn on the television and look at the various news stories about the downward economy, what can you do?

There are various programs that can help you determine seasonality. Unfortunately not all programs will provide current seasonality (including paid services). You may find the closest seasonality trends you can obtain will focus around the previous calendar year (example January 2007 – December 2007).

Applying Seasonality to Pay Per Click:

If you haven’t paid attention to pay per click seasonality trending in the past, now you understand the importance. To further stretch your budget in a downward economy think of the application of your pay per click resources. Why distribute your ad spend in perfect twelfths across the course of a year when you know you have a few months that are particularly busy.

To be better prepared for this busy period consider the length of your sales cycle. Shift resources to strong performing keywords at the beginning of the sales cycle. For example if you find your busy season is October and November and you have a 60 day sales cycle, be prepared to increase your ad spend in August. This means your ads and a revised strategy should be ready no later than mid-July.

Determine Online Trends:

Determining online trending of web traffic is difficult. On the surface this seems like it should be as easy as counting inventory on a supermarket shelf. Senior managers, especially with a finance background tend to have a difficult time with online marketing efforts at times because of a lack of measurement in some areas. These professionals are correct to criticize. Getting industry-wide information that is dependable and updated to the present day is not easy.

Some qualitative measurements can be obtained, but reliable industry-wide quantitative statistics are not always available. This is because search engines do not make this information public and other available tools typically rely on sampling, i.e. the validity can be speculated and the information is not absolute (what senior managers are depending on).

Senior management and the marketing managers are going to need to take a leap of faith in some areas here. Past experiences and instincts will need to be considered along with various trending reports.

Reach Out to an SEO firm:

In a downward economy an SEO firm seems like the last area you would want to reach out to. Spending more money is sometimes the last thing a firm wants to consider when in a downward economy and facing inevitable decreased financial performance. For example, a good Atlanta search engine optimization agency will walk you through a series of exercises. You’ll want to determine your cost to acquire a new customer and spend accordingly. Also, you’ll want to ensure your ‘call to action’ steps are well defined and pages such as ‘contact us’ pages are designed for customer usability.

Optimizing your campaign can help you gain market share during a downward economy. While this might not be as glamorous as meeting and exceeding sales forecasts, this is a long term strategy. If you are able to gain market share while the economy is cold, you will be minimizing your loses during this time and positioning yourself to be in a stronger position when the economy turns around.



Harris

Australasian Investment Review asked:


The US economy is in far worse shape than many in the US think, and is heading for a hard landing.

American consumers, who account for 70% of demand and consumption in the huge, $US14.4 trillion economy, are in trouble and cutting back spending, thanks to falling levels of credit.

In fact the credit cuts are now much deeper than anyone thought after the release of up to date figures.

The IMF said overnight that the US appeared to be sinking into a recession, it said.

The Fund said in its latest World Economic Outlook that the US was now poised to expand 1.6% this year and a bare 0.1% in 2009.

That was an increase of 0.3% and a decrease of 0.7%, respectively from the prior forecast just three months ago, in which the IMF had lifted its April WEO forecasts, citing improving economic conditions in the US.

That improvement for this year relates to the 2.8% rise in second quarter economic growth.

The estimates were made before the latest figures though on consumer borrowing which tell a story of US consumers cutting back, or being cut back on credit, the lifeblood of the economy.

Figures for September store sales from some major retailers overnight showed sluggish growth for most, with downturns for those selling more expensive products, such as department stores.

Wall Mart managed a 2.4% rise in same store sales, but that was less than forecast, discount bulk chains lost Costco did OK, but Target reported a 3% drop in comparable store sales.

JC Penny, the big department store chain reported a massive 12.4% drop in same store sales in September, far worse than expected.

But it’s no wonder after the Fed’s earlier report.

Figures Tuesday night from the Federal Reserve on consumer credit show the biggest fall in the history of the recorded figures.

At the same time major industrial, Alcoa, suffered a 52% drop in third quarter earnings and has joined the mighty General Electric in eliminating a share buyback to conserve capital.

The national body for US car dealers warned that 700 would go out of business this year alone, and more would follow in 2009, if the credit freeze was not eased soon. Car sales fell 27% last month and the way the credit freeze is working, that drop will increase in the coming quarter.

And in a dramatic move the Fed extended the boundaries of its ‘Lender of Last Resort’ understanding by supplanting temporarily the frozen $US1.6 trillion commercial paper market, the day to day lifeblood for American business activity.

At the same time Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke held out hopes for a rate cut, but said the US economy was heading into tougher times.

The Fed said it would set up a new Commercial Paper Funding Facility to buy three-month debt from banks and non-financial companies.

It’s probably one of its most important decisions because if this vital short term debt can’t be rolled over for US companies (end employers) when it falls due; the American economy will be crunched to a halt.

The move was desperately needed with figures showing that 28% of the market would fall due this week and a further 12% next week.

The Fed’s figures last Friday showed that in the week to last Wednesday, the market had already contracted $US215 billion in the past three weeks and virtually all new lending was being done overnight.

If that 28% to 40% of that huge amount can’t be rolled over, the US economy will be crunched by the end of October at the latest, so the Fed had to act.

Without the Fed’s move to being a sort of bank, the US economy will crunch to a complete halt in a matter of weeks, throwing hundreds of thousands of people out of work and setting off a domino chain of corporate failures across all sectors.

This freeze in the commercial paper market is why the likes of Alcoa and GE have cut their share buybacks and why Bank of America cut its dividend by 50% and is seeking to raise $US10 billion in new capital.

It has to support the acquisitions of Countrywide Financial Services and Merrill Lynch and the added burdens they will impose on its finances: but it is like all other banks and has cut lending across the board.,

But it’s clear consumers, the engine of the US economy, were being denied credit by banks and other lenders well before the eruption of this latest phase when the credit crunch turned to a freeze.But there’s nothing the Fed can do immediately to ease the squeeze on consumers: each week tens of thousands of them are losing their jobs, their homes, having their pay cut and hours trimmed and are being denied credit at a rate not thought possible until the Fed released the credit figures for August, a month before the crisis worsened with the spate of failures and bailouts in the US starting with Lehman Brothers.

The Fed reported that consumer credit fell by $US7.9 billion in August, the biggest fall since the statistics began being collected in 1943, to $US2.58 trillion.

Bloomberg said that economists forecast an increase of $US5 billion in consumer credit during August, so the Fed’s report came as a complete shock to the market.

Total consumer borrowing dropped at a rate of 4.3% in August, the most since January 1998.

Revolving debt such as credit cards decreased by $US612 million during August and non-revolving debt, including auto loans, dropped by $US7.3 billion.

That fall was a month before the 27% plunge in US car sales last month, so it’s likely that consumer credit again fell sharply in September.

The news of the Fed’s move and the sharp contraction in consumer credit (one of the Fed’s ‘Key Economic Indicators’) makes it easier to understand the contents of a speech overnight by chairman, Ben Bernanke in which he painted a gloomy picture of the US economy.

He would have known of the move to try and stop the rot in the commercial paper market and the sharp fall in consumer credit, so it was no wonder he was saying:

“Economic activity had shown signs of decelerating even before the recent upsurge in financial-market tensions.

As has been the case for some time, the housing market continues to be a primary source of weakness in the real economy as well as in the financial markets. However, the slowdown in economic activity has spread outside the housing sector.

“Private payrolls have continued to contract, and the declines in employment, together with earlier increases in food and energy prices, have eroded the purchasing power of households. This sluggishness of real incomes, together with tighter credit and declining household wealth, is now showing through more clearly to consumer spending.

“Indeed, since May, real consumer outlays have contracted significantly. Meanwhile, in the business sector, worsening sales prospects and a heightened sense of uncertainty have begun to weigh more heavily on investment spending as well.

“The intensification of financial turmoil and the further impairment of the functioning of credit markets seem likely to increase the restraint on economic activity in the period ahead.”

“All told, economic activity is likely to be subdued during the remainder of this year and into next year. The heightened financial turmoil that we have experienced of late may well lengthen the period of weak economic performance and further increase the risks to growth.

“To support growth and reduce the downside risks, continued efforts to stabilize the financial markets are essential. The Federal Reserve will continue to use the tools at its disposal to improve market functioning and liquidity.”

Meanwhile the chairwoman of the National Automobile Dealers Association says the credit crunch and economic problems are likely to cause 700 auto dealers in the US to go under this year.

Speaking to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, Annette Sykora said quick action will be needed to ease the squeeze and restore consumer confidence and help the industry.

An estimated 94% of American car buyers finance their purchases, Ms Sykora says but even those with good to high scores and solid credit records can’t get financing.

Dealers with good credit also are having trouble getting financing for their inventories.

It’s the same story in home lending and also in credit cards where credit lines and revolving credit arrangements are being terminated or refused.

According to the National Auto Dealers Association, there are around 20,000 auto dealers in the US. About 430 dealerships closed last year and 295 closed in 2006.

The estimate of 700 dealers going out of business does not include new dealers that will enter the market.

According to the Fed’s credit figures, lenders were cutting back on car loans (and other credit in August) and car sales fell 11% in the month. The 27% fall in September reflects the intensification of the credit freeze and helps explain why car sales sank 27% to less than 1 million for the month for the first time since 1993.

Some buyers are not committing because they fear for their jobs or can’t get the right vehicle when they are looking for more fuel-efficient models.

Regardless of the reason, it means consumers are spending less. September’s retail sales figures are out in about 10 days or so and are likely to make miserable reading, along with the consumer spending figures a little later in October.

IMPORTANT: AIR reports about financial markets and investment products in the widest sense possible. The AIR website and all its contents is prepared for general information only, and as such, the specific needs, investment objectives or financial situation of any particular user have not been taken into consideration. Individuals should therefore talk with their financial planner or advisor before making any investment decisions.



Max

Joann M asked:


Can the current US economy be fixed by printing more dollar bills by the fed.

I know that US Dollar is the Global Reserve Currency. Does being a reserve currency allow you to print as much as u want without hampering your economy ?

Do you forsee any chance of the reserve currency being replaced sooner ?

Maurice

Heather Eagar asked:


There is no doubt that our current economy is a little scary to say the least. Companies are laying off in mass numbers while gas, food, and energy costs are reaching record highs. It can be very difficult to maintain sanity in the midst of such uncertainty, let alone think about finding a job. But with responsibilities like bills and family always present, one must learn to keep pushing forward.

If you’re trying to find a job in our unsettling job market, you may feel less than excited about your prospects. However, you can find a job…and a good one at that. You just have to develop the right attitude, and an even better resume.

Make Yourself More Marketable

With layoffs on the rise, more people are competing for the same job. So in order to make yourself more marketable, you’ll need to perfect your resume. This means, no spelling or grammatical errors. You’ll also need to make sure your skills stand out above the rest.

One way you can do this is by conducting thorough research on the company and position to illustrate how you can enhance their goals. When describing your skills, try using action-oriented words like designed, marketed and researched, instead of phrases like “responsibilities included.” And also focus on specific achievements, like how much money you made at your previous company, and on which projects, to help employers assess your skill level.

Consider Economic Growths, Declines, and Specific Regions

Before you even apply for a job, it’s good to look at which business areas are growing, which are declining, and how your region is fairing economically. For example, a May 2008 Newsweek article reported that finance and accounting, engineering, technology and science are seeing growth, while construction, manufacturing, and automotive seem to be declining. In the same article, it noted that Midwest jobs may be on the decline due to its strong construction focus, while cities like New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Dallas may see a rise due to their professional focus.

After you conduct your research, if you find your field isn’t negatively impacted by the economy, you may still want to conduct more research to learn details such as whether managers and administrators, or hourly employees, are keeping or losing jobs. And if things aren’t going so well in your industry, you might consider a slight career shift, such as moving from software development to hardware networking, or even switching cities. That is if the prospects for long-term employment seem more promising.

Maintain the Right Attitude

In this economy, it is important to keep a positive attitude about your career prospects. Because the fact of the matter is, if there is a job available, someone must eventually fill the role. So why couldn’t it be you? You are just as qualified for the job as you were before the economy worsened. So try not to let the economy’s current state negatively affect your job search.

Under stable conditions, getting on track career-wise requires strong determination. But in a weak economy, it takes more. So take time to perfect your resume, conduct extensive research on your field, and keep a positive attitude. You will see that despite the economy, you’ll be able to thrive.



Willard

Lokesh Goyal asked:


THE DEVELOPMENT of real estate in India is attributed to the off-shoring and outsourcing businesses, such as high-end technology consultation, call centres and programming houses.

The demand from the information technology sector certainly has changed the urban landscape in India. Several multinational companies (MNCs) continue to move their organizational operations to India to take advantage of lower manpower and other costs. Providing human resources and home at their work place assumes great significance and therefore, the requirement to create space for people to live and work that in turn causes the development of other related infrastructure. It has been a predominant trend to set up the world´s best business centres, often campus-style establishments, bearing a distinguishing corporate stamp. Some of these locations are so distinctive that they are termed as the ´temples of new or modern India´. It is just an indication of the extent to which the development of real estate has been taking place.

The real estate market in India remains unorganized, fairly fragmented, mostly characterized by small players with a local presence. Traditionally, real estate developers were viewed with an element of skepticism. Developers were often identified dealing with large amounts of unaccounted money, lacking transparency and would use unscrupulous mean to acquire a variety of regulatory approvals.

The tremendous growth of the real estate sector is attributed to various fundamental factors such as growing economy, growing business needs, etc. This boom however is restricted to areas such as commercial office space, retail and housing sectors. The impending concerns of this sector namely- skill shortage, non availability of statistics, lack of low cost-affordable housing, lack of sustainability, high RE prices and last, to meet a future that might have downturn due to oversupply.

The industry is presently facing a major resource crunch – an obvious lack of qualified skilled people from construction firms, PMC firms, etc. Coupled with this manpower shortage is the shortage of availability of relevant statistics which has created an ambiguity as to how much construction activity is actually taking place and one can´t gauge the demand and supply trends accurately.

The opportunities and issues of affordable, low cost housing in India are mainly related with tremendous shortfall of middle class housing as majority of the developers are involved in developing high class housing, so there is a dearth of low cost affordable units.

The negative version of Indian real estate industry is “they have complete disrespect for sustainability” and that the concept of green buildings, proper waste disposal methods and the longevity of the product are often dismissed.

Presently, the impact of recession in US economy has impacted Indian Real Estate Market as well as it is also witnessing the recession. Till now the real estate industry was a very booming industry in India which were in pace with IT industry. Accordingly, the demand for IT space and Commercial spaces has been grown. Also the high net worth of individual investors has created a very fast pace of demand in Indian real estate sector which have gain a very high impact image of investing in India.

As the money was coming in terms on investment in India from NRI as well as Private Equity funds, the well known developers and real estate players have grown their portfolio as well many small sized players have also created in Indian market. It has provided a very high supply of real estate segments either in residential or in commercial or in office space. SEZ has also creates a very good opportunities for investors as well as corporate to invest and get benefited from Indian real estate market. So the booming market has created a niche as modern living in India and created a very mass employment in Indian segment.

The recent changes which happened in American market such as Bankruptcy of Lehman Brother an oldest financial firm of American market and sell process of PE Firm Merryl lynch by the largest US bank Bank of America has created a very fast drops/recession in financial industry and created a crisis in all over US economy. Both of these firms were invested their more part of funds in to real estate sector without having the proper analyzing or effect. They also have given the funds for mortgage industry of US which is currently facing the hurdle of Sub prime lending and have impacted many players to bankrupt.

All of these changes in US economy have impacted in Indian economy as well as Real estate segment as most of the Indian players have their liquidity funded by both of these firms. Also the IT segment which was mainly funded by the PE firms or have their export to US markets have noticed very sharp drop of net worth of their firms. This recession also impacted the Sensex which has bullish very sharply and brings down the net worth of the leader of Indian real estate player very low. The impact can be shown in share price of DLF, Unitech, GMR group, Reliance group, Wipro, Satyam etc groups.

All of these sudden changes in Indian and US market created a point of thinking to investors & individuals that where it will go and what will be best option in real estate investment.

The market rates in India are also dropped by 10 to 30% in most of prominent as well as upcoming cities and the trend appears to be still continuing till it will not recover the effects of this financial crisis.

For more details, please visit- http://indianrealtynews.blogspot.com



Fox

Dale Goldhawk asked:


Basically, the underground economy consists of people who are independent operators and who avoid or, more accurately, evade any legal responsibilities to their customers, communities or the country in which they live and from which they draw all the services they can manage.

A good catchall term for members of the underground economy is Leeches. When you use a member of the underground economy you use a person or an employer of other persons who:

-Does not pay income tax

-Does not pay GST or PST

-Does not pay workers compensation premiums

-Does not make employer contributions to the Canada Pension Plan or Employment Insurance

-Does not pay Employment Standards Act benefits so workers can have vacations and statutory holidays with pay

-Does not accept credit cards or, in most cases, cheques or other traceable payments

-Does not provide or honour guarantees or warrantees

-Uses and sells the cheapest and least durable products including counterfeit products

-Walks away from jobs at any time

-Has no business address or reliable means of contact

-Hires unqualified and potentially dishonest, unbondable, helpers

-May have a criminal record

-May be an illegal alien with no ties to the community or country

-Does not carry liability insurance and is likely uninsurable

-Is not licensed by any authority

-Is not certified for the work being done

-Is not trained

-Is not competent in at least some of the services offered and probably all

-Will not subject his or her work to inspection by any qualified person or agency.

This list could go on to include all of the negatives which can be countered easily by regulations, standards and mores prevalent in the legitimate above ground economy.

So what? If you deal with an unlicensed guy who paves your driveway or mows your lawn or fixes your roof for half of the price of a true professional, don’t you save money? And isn’t saving money a really good thing in any kind of economy? This is the dumbest way to look at dealings with the underground economy. An illegitimate construction contractor can cut his or her labour costs by about half by skipping all the ground rules of a legitimate contractor (see above).

This contractor can hire any yoyo to work on your roof or your electrical system or your plumbing. This contractor and his ilk cost our governments and the workers’ comp system more than $1.5 billion a year.

This means the government -this is us, folks- can’t adequately fund the apprenticeship programs we need badly across Canada. It can’t provide all the health and protection we need in the workplace.

It means also that the legitimate contractor, who pays for training and skilled sub trades and top grade products and a million other things we need, is severely damaged with unfair competition.

In addition, while you are paying your full share of income taxes, GST, PST and health costs, all the leeches who make up about 15 percent of our economy are costing us about $30 billion a year by not paying these taxes. Don’t blame only government when it can’t provide better roads or an improved environment or the zillion other things we want and need.

Blame yourself for abetting tax evasion by the underground economy leeches who are laughing at you all the way to their banks.

Every time you give a buck to the underground economy, you are taking a lot of that dollar away from elderly Canadians who depend on old age security payments and other supplements to their meager incomes.

You are depleting the money available to eligible unemployed workers including those who have to take time off to care for gravely ill or dying family members. You are potentially depriving low and modest income families of benefits from the Canada Child Tax Benefit and the GST credit.

You are taking money out of resources that should go to needy children, our health care system, post-secondary education and all our social services.

Think about this: the services we use to live decent lives in Canada are paid for, largely, by taxes paid by each of us. Without this money, Canada would enjoy a quality of life similar to Iraq or the Sudan but even worse because of our cold climate.

Deduct about 15 percent of the money we need and you put a huge hole in our services. That’s what the underground economy does every year. We are chumps for paying people to take money and resources out of our pockets while giving us, in all cases, inferior or, at least, questionable goods and services with no consumer protection whatsoever.

We might as well carry signs around our necks reading ‘Pickpockets welcome’ with a big arrow pointing to the pocket or purse where we keep our cash.

The next time someone comes to your door or telephones you offering cheap moving, renovation, land in Florida, car repairs or anything else in return for cash up front and no questions asked, ask yourself if you want your pocket picked once again or if you would rather pay for professional work from the above ground economy.

Ask yourself if you want to get involved in a criminal conspiracy to evade paying taxes or do you want everyone to pay fair taxes for the services your family needs. Ask yourself why you would want your blood sucked by a leech when you can deal, instead, with the good guys in Canada’s marketplaces.



Clive

mr. toothpick asked:


I know the drop in our economy DOES impact other countries. For instance, if our economy drops we stop importing as many things from other countries as well as investing in many of the global markets.
But, other than these impacts, how does the US affect other countries? And on what scale?
No, this is not for school. Merely a question by a curious college student.

Charles

Thomas Pretty asked:


It is believed that last year sales of caravans and camping equipment reached an all time high. The contribution of two billion pounds to the UK economy can be seen as part of the increased popularity of caravan and camping holidays. Now the nation’s favourite holiday pastime; research has also highlighted a perceived link between camping and caravan holidays with the benefits of healthy living.

It is believed that each day camping and caravan holidaymakers spend almost thirty pounds. Included in this figure is petrol, food and drink sales and when considered that there are around seventeen million caravan and camping holidays being made each year this figure is considerable.

Although this does not include pitch sales and fees; it is estimated that if it did the figure would be closer to fifty pounds a day. Considering that pitch fees are used to develop sites and employ local residents the contribution to local economies is also vast.

A survey has further detailed caravan and camping holiday spending. It is believed that fifty seven percent of holidaymakers spent their money in pubs while almost the same number spent money in local eateries. UK tourist attractions have also benefited in terms of ticket sales with almost seventy percent visiting a variety of attractions regularly. An outstanding eighty five percent of camping and caravan tourists walked to their destination highlighting the benefits to the environment this type of holiday has.

Of the seventeen million caravan and camping holidays taking place annually the average stay is estimated to be four days. Over these four days the amount poured into local economies through food and drink sales as well as entry to local attractions is believed to be one of the major factors bolstering rural incomes. Without this steady stream of holidaymakers it can be surmised that the large contribution in many rural economies is a vital element in their survival.

Campers rather than those staying in a caravan are believed to be even more likely to add to local economies. Because of a lack of facilities and storage when tent camping, shops and restaurants around campsites make more sales of subsistence products than those near caravan parks. With the popularity of this type of holiday growing rapidly rural economies will benefit further.

In terms of the supposed link between camping and caravan holidays and a healthier lifestyle the supposition seems to hold water. A survey used data from the general public as well as regular camping and caravan holidaymakers; it found that ninety seven percent of those who camped or caravanned regularly felt that being outdoors had a positive impact on their lives. The research also found that campers and caravanners were more likely to undertake activities such as walking, swimming and cycling than members of the general public.

Comment on the research has stated that it demonstrates what camping and caravan holidaymakers had believed for years. The contribution to the local economy through food and drink sales and local services keeps rural economies alive and provides jobs for those in the localities. The research also showed that campers and caravaners are driven by a desire to explore new places, visit attractions and sample local food.

Camping and caravan holidays are fundamentally about spending time in the marvellous British countryside, so the link between these types of holidays and a healthier lifestyle is unsurprising. This type of holiday not only provides freedom and choice but is also part of a healthy lifestyle. As a result there is little wonder that sales of tents and caravans are skyrocketing as more people try to join the hoards seeking this lifestyle choice.



Vincent

Arlene K asked:


If the US economy collapses, should I leave the country? My dollars would probably go farther elsewhere. Anyways what would you do?

Fergus